Philippians: The Call of Love is a Path of Pain

You maybe see there well, it's quite a passage.

There's a lot going on, and so I don't pretend to uh think that we're gonna hit every single part of it.

Uh you'll read parts of it and you'll see parts of it that I'm not gonna hit on.

Uh but this is a passage in Philippians, and Paul is in prison while he's writing this to his friends in a town called Philippi where he helped start a church.

And there's two popular phrases in here that jump out to us, especially if you've been around church, these phrases jump out.

The first is to live is Christ and die is gain, right?

That's the one we put on the summer camp t-shirt.

The second one is let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So maybe you're here and those sound incredibly religious, or maybe you're used to those, so they don't sound quite as religious, but maybe they sound abstract.

Because on some level, you sense God in the scriptures calling you to something, like a call on your life, and then you read something like that, and you're like, I can't quite get my arms around.

What is that?

What does that mean?

What does that mean?

I read it, I say it, we put it on a t-shirt, but what does that actually mean for my life?

And it doesn't always, at least for me, it doesn't always seem incredibly, incredibly clear.

So we're gonna look at the context of this passage, we're gonna dig into the passage a little bit, and then hopefully these two key phrases at some point will jump out to us and we'll have some understanding of these.

So remember, Paul's in prison.

Here's the context of the passage, and the next day, or the next day, or the next week, upcoming for him is some sort of court date where he will either be sentenced to death or he'll be set free.

And so you imagine that amount of uncertainty, right?

Sitting in a cell, he's writing letters, he's contemplating his life, he's contemplating living, he's contemplating dying, he's contemplating which of these has benefits and what are the benefits of each of these.

And he's all here because he's upset the power structure, right?

I mean, the Roman Empire had this phrase we talked about last week: Caesar is Lord.

Because they believe Caesar was a god, and a great way to keep your thumb on the people is to create, you know, make the president a god, and then everybody has to bow to the president and worship the president, and therefore the people don't have freedom.

And then Paul comes along and says, No, no, no, like actually that guy's not a God, he's not God.

Actually, there was another guy, and he was God, and he died for us, and he took our sin, he gives us righteousness, and we are free because of that, and we don't bow to anybody or anything or anyone except Jesus is Lord.

And so Paul is saying this, and this is upsetting the power structure, and so he's in prison.

All right, that's the context.

Three points.

Point number one we are called to love.

No surprise.

I didn't surprise you on that one.

I won't surprise you probably on any of this.

Jesus sums up spirituality that way.

It's the greatest commandment.

Love God and love your neighbor.

This is the summary of the law, it's the summary of spirituality, it's what our lives should look like.

This is the context of what Paul's life is about.

Paul's life is about loving people and proclaiming good news to people for their freedom.

This is what Paul's life is about.

So anything that Paul is writing is coming out of love for people, for them to have salvation in Christ and freedom.

So let me reread these verses as we work our way through it.

Philippians 1, 18 through 21.

Yes, and I will rejoice, verse 19, for I know that through your prayers, so he knows something, through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance.

He's in prison, he's feeling pretty confident, things are gonna work out because of people's prayers and the spirit of Jesus Christ in him.

Verse 20, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, that's his hope.

He doesn't want to be ashamed, but that with full courage now, as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

So then now he's kind of saying, Well, maybe I might die, I might die, but either way, either way, he wants to go the route of courage, is what he wants to go.

And then he says, verse 21, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

And so, verse 19, that word deliverance is soteria, and this could simply mean something as simple as just being delivered from prison, like physically, and that's what he's hoping for.

Or probably because of the context of this, and he's recognizing that he might die, it probably means something more, something more profound.

It's probably him saying something like, I want my hands to be clean.

At the end of this, I want to, I don't, I, I don't want to fold.

I don't want to be ashamed.

And he's banking on the spirit of God in him working, being present with him in this, in this horror.

I mean, let's be honest, tragedy, horror, prison, possible death, right?

And the fact that these people are praying for him, these people are with him.

And so he puts these two things together for his hope: the spirit of God working in him and people praying for him.

So on Tuesday morning, I was working on this, I'm kind of contemplating these things, the Spirit of God working in you, people praying for you, how this changes things.

And while I'm working on it, uh my phone rings and I look down, and it's a friend of mine, his name's Bill, and I pick it up.

Bill is 85 years old, somewhere around there, maybe 86, maybe 84, not sure.

He's right around there, and I pick it up and I walk outside and we start talking, and I hadn't talked to him in probably three years.

So, kind of one of those calls you're like, oh, I wonder why he's calling.

I pick it up.

And he went to the church, he still goes to the church that I used to work at, and he just says, Hey, I'm driving around doing errands, and I was thinking about you, thinking about your church.

How's it going?

I'm praying for you.

And you know what happened?

The most interesting thing.

It was the same thing that happened to you.

Even if you don't believe in prayer, I'm willing to say this would happen to you.

Something changed in me.

Right?

Just to know, right?

Just to know somebody else is with me.

Just to know somebody else cares for me.

Bill.

Bill cares enough for me that on Tuesday morning he's gonna call me out of nowhere and say, hey, I'm thinking about you and I'm praying for you, and I just want to let you know that.

And something in me, something actually happened.

Just to know somebody cares.

To know you are not alone is powerful.

And Paul is feeling that.

Paul's feeling that.

You've all felt it or you've wanted to feel it, right?

Like when you're in the moment, you're in the suffering, you're in the horror, you're in the tragedy, and either somebody came alongside you and you knew that feeling, like, like, okay, now I can make it, now I can breathe, now I can make the.

Or somebody didn't come along, and you're going, like, if just somebody came along, somebody came along, this would be incredible.

Hopefully that's what we're doing here, like here, hopefully that's what some of this is about, is that that would happen for each of us.

Verse 21.

For to me, to live is Christ and die is gain.

If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor.

So he's reasoning this out.

If I'm gonna live, they say I can live, that means fruitful labor for me.

Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell.

I am hard pressed between the two.

My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

So he's thinking about them.

Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy, for them, for their progress, for their joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus because of my coming to you again.

So point number one was we are called to love.

Point number two is, and you're gonna have to track with me a little bit here, the call of love is a path of pain.

The call of love is a path of pain.

So there's suffering that happens to you.

You get sick, uh, you're downsized.

And then there's suffering that happens because you love people.

Right?

I mean, you felt this with your first love.

Susan Elmore, second grade.

I loved her, I hurt for her.

Yes, you can have my crayons, yes, you can have my chocolate milk, right?

I would suffer for her, right?

We felt this as early as our first love.

You did this when you stayed up all night talking to your sweet someone, and the next day you felt horrible.

You did this when you drove four hours for a two-hour date, and then you drove four hours back.

Totally illogical, and you suffered for that.

Now, it's also true when you get married.

You get married, you go to Home Depot, and you're contemplating buying a grill and a patio set, and one of you wants to buy the grill and the patio set, and the other one of you wants to buy Home Depot stock.

And you the two of you, you're standing there, one wants the stock, the other one wants the grill in the patio set.

And then you get home and you and you're one.

There's gonna be a sacrifice here.

Somebody is sacrificing in this moment because you are one and two people have to make one decision and you love each other, so somebody will sacrifice.

Love is a path of pain.

You get home, and you recorded the masters.

But you're sweet, someone wants to watch Chip and Joanna flip another house.

And we all know it's a farmhouse with shiplap.

We do.

That's what it always is.

You don't, if you figure out what I'm talking about later, you don't have to watch the show.

It's a farmhouse with a lot of white and shiplap.

That's what it is.

But somebody there, somebody there in that moment, in that moment, unless you divorce to separate rooms, some of us do that, right?

Unless you divorce to separate rooms, there's gonna be a sacrifice.

Or maybe you just don't want to talk.

You don't want to open up, you don't want to share with someone why you're anxious or why you distance yourself.

But the only way, the only way to love someone is to let them in.

And that's painful.

Right?

You get the point.

I could keep going with different scenarios.

The call of love is a path of pain.

So for Paul to live as Christ, to live as Christ, think about that, to live as Christ means to live to love and to speak the good news, and in that there will be sacrifice.

That's what Christ does.

He loves and he sacrifices.

So for us to live as Christ means we will love people and we will speak the good news, and in that, just because of the nature of love, it will be a path of pain.

Because love requires risk and vulnerability.

You will carry their burdens.

Once you start to do this, you will have to carry other people's burdens.

You will hurt with them because you love them.

You will even be hurt by them.

This is what Christ did.

So to die would be gain.

You'd be free from that.

But to live is Christ.

So the call is to love in the path of pain.

And the good news, point number three, good news, in the context of what Paul's writing in this whole letter, in the context of even chapter one, because even in chapter one, joy is mentioned four times.

So this is the context here.

The call of love and the path of pain is in the context of joy.

The call of love and the path of pain is in the context of joy.

Let's read verses 27 through 30, and we have to remember these in the context of for joy.

Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ.

So that whether I come and see you or I'm absent, I may hear of you.

And he just feels love for these people.

I may hear of you, that you are standing firm in one spirit.

So he wants them to be loving each other, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, not frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God, for it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.

Because if we're gonna love people, if we're gonna do that great commandment, if we're gonna love people, speak the good news, you're gonna suffer.

Because the call of love is a path of pain.

Verse 30, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now I hear that I still have.

So verse 30 is actually quite a real verse, uh, because it's quite a reality, these people.

It's because uh what happens with Paul could be a precedent for what happens with these people.

Right?

It's like it's like a it's a precedent.

Like if they kill them, maybe they're coming after this church also.

So they're watching this case, they're watching what happens here because they are claiming Jesus is Lord and they're not bowing to Caesar.

So whatever happens here means everything.

And yet Paul says in verse 29, hey, don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

And it's about now in this passage where I think we should all be incredibly grateful for where we live.

And not for the affluence which we have, but just because this choice is not something we think about.

This is not something we think about on a day-to-day basis.

That the call of loving and speaking good news might result in a sacrifice of life.

It's not something we think about here.

We don't have to.

And yet we all know about suffering, and maybe you don't use that word.

Maybe you just want to say hard stuff.

Hard stuff in life.

Because any hard stuff is suffering.

And but to suffer for his sake means to love, and to love means to be open to pain because love requires risk and sacrifice and vulnerability.

So let's illustrate this.

I need a volunteer.

A brave individual that will be slightly humiliated.

Not fully, just enough.

You're willing to look silly for a moment.

I'm just letting you know before you get up here.

Not it's not gonna be too painful.

I'll call your name out if I don't volunteer quickly.

Okay, Matt.

Thank you, Matt.

Uh right here, thank you.

So, here, just grab this.

There you go.

So we want to believe, uh, and we some and we somewhat, we do believe that we are called to love people, but we we don't want to suffer.

Really good, man.

But we don't want to suffer.

And so what we do is we busy ourselves, we busy insulating ourselves from other people and from pain.

And so we don't just do this in 30 seconds like I just did with Matt.

We do this over months, we do this over years, we insulate ourselves from other people, and you know what?

It's actually quite effective.

You can't insulate yourself from other people, and you will not feel as much pain.

But you know what happens, inevitably.

Now Matt can not only he can't feel as much can't feel as much pain, but he also can't can't receive love, right?

Because he's insulated.

Alright, you can you can sit down.

Thanks.

Yeah, just keep it on for the rest of the day, that'd be nice.

See, joy and love and pain, they're they're all the same cocktail.

You drink them all at the same time.

Joy and love and pain are all the same.

It's all the same.

You can't do one without the other.

You can't have one without the other.

Now let's circle back to that second phrase.

To live lives worthy of the gospel of Christ.

I mean, I most of my life I read that and I have read that, and it has felt so daunting to me.

Because at times I felt like, ain't too bad.

Doing pretty good, feeling pretty, feeling pretty awesome in front of this phrase.

Like, look, I am I am living worthy of the gospel.

Look at me, and in that, always sort of like, oh, look at them.

They don't quite have their acts together yet.

And so there's always that judgment within that sort of attitude.

And then you know what happens if you're living this sort of way, because you're doing it based on your own merit.

And then there's the swing, isn't there?

There's always the swing, and you feel totally defeated.

Completely defeated.

Like you'll never measure up, like you never have your act together.

And what I was missing was this key, this just key truth.

That what we were already called.

The calling comes after what we were already called.

Meaning your secure position as God's beloved has already has already been handled, right?

That's verse 1, chapter 1.

Saints.

Saints of Philippi.

Right?

You are a saint.

See, there's a pronouncement over your being.

Paul already pronounces over them their sainthood in Christ.

It's where it all began, it's where it all begins, it's where it still begins.

And I know maybe it doesn't feel like that way because your life feels like it's a bit of a wreck, or your heart feels like it's a bit of a wreck, but you are a saint, not based on you getting all that together, but based on the fact that Christ died for you.

He was perfect for you.

So the blessed encouragement to live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ, that's a real call.

And it can often feel like either I gotta pull my bootstraps up and I'm gonna make this happen like I make everything else happen in my life, or we shrink back from it, right?

Because we feel the judgment of it.

But it's neither.

It's neither of those things.

It is a blessed encouragement in the context of a blessing that's already been conferred upon you.

You are a saint, live in light of your sainthood.

So, author and Lutheran minister Nadia Bowles Weber, she says this: you live lives worthy of the gospel because you have received grace upon grace.

You do not live lives worthy of the gospel in order to receive this grace.

See, for me, uh it always feels more natural to meet a condition for a blessing than to receive one.

Right?

Like, I I love giving a hug.

Like I'm a hugger.

I love giving a hug, but I don't really like receiving one.

Like I hug like like Trump shakes hands.

You know, like that's how I hug.

Like I'm in charge here.

Like I'm not really, I'm not really gonna let you shake my hand.

I'm shaking yours.

I'm not really gonna let you hug me and me feel smaller and me receive.

I'm gonna hug you.

That that's how this is gonna work.

And and I think underneath some of that defensiveness is sort of this question, right?

Like, whether I am worthy before I prove myself.

Like, can I be loved before?

Can I be blessed before?

And imagine this truth.

Just imagine this truth.

That the call to love, the call to live a life worthy of the gospel is a just a blessed encouragement for your life, but it's in the context of a blessing already conferred upon you that you are a saint.

So, my brothers and sisters, may you receive your sainthood and perfectly and gloriously living a life of love.

To live is Christ.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your great love for us.

Thank you that we are saints by your work and not by ours, and we are free in your great grace that is always deeper than our sin.

And we pause, just as we did at the beginning of the service, we pause now to say we are sinners.

We love to prove ourselves.

We love to prove ourselves in a religious realm, in a moral realm.

We love to escape, we love all of this, we love to self-justify.

And it is so incredibly difficult for us to receive your grace and mercy.

Would you break through our hard hearts?

Would you help free us from ourselves?

Would you help us see the ways we insulate our own selves and we are unable to live out the call to love?

God, we thank you that your work for us is sufficient.

That we fall short in all these ways, we fall short before the call to love.

And your love never falls short.

Would you increase our trust in the sufficiency of Jesus this morning?

Amen.